X & Violence Part 7: Something Blue

Okay, so I think it's time to take a break from serious and/ or controversial topics for a while, and talk about something a little more light hearted. So, what's on my mind today?

The whole area of pre owned games & the various attendant issues arising from it.

Yeah, this is gonna go well.

So, what's the problem? Why am I even ASKING that question? We all know what the problem is. Game stores sell games second hand. Whilst this is good for the consumer (at least in the short term) and great for the stores, it's pretty bad for the developers.  And really there's no right or wrong answer here. Things are never as black and white as the average news story would like to make out. Is it fair that a game can be sold as many times as the disc remains readable but the developers only get income from their hard work once? No. Not really. But there's no way around that.

See, you could, in theory, enact a law that would make it a legal requirement to pay those involved in making the game a nominal portion of resales, however minimal that might be. And whilst that might seem like a reasonable idea you have, in fact, just killed the internet. It's the slippery slope principle. Once you've established a legal precedent that the creator of a work has an entitlement beyond the original sale then no one can sell ANYTHING second hand ever again. Don't believe me? Think about it. eBay would need to hire a set of staff just to ensure that all sales would have the appropriate percentages deducted and transferred to the current rights holders. Hell, they'd need some dedicated effort just to FIND the correct rights holders in some cases. And we're not just talking about games. Once the precedent is set you can bet your ass (or indeed any other favoured organs) that the various media giants would move to extend it to CDs, DVDs, books and pretty much anything else you can think off. The concept of actual ownership would collapse under the sheer weight of paperwork you'd have to fill out simply to do a car boot sale.

So how come we never see the same furore over second hand sales in these other industries. Has anyone ever looked down on a second hand book shop as killing the publishing industry? Well, probably. There's always one after all. But you never see an article declaiming how the second hand DVD section of you're local CEX is destroying the medium of film. I suppose the thing here is that the music and film industries have bigger things to worry about. Second hand sales are nothing next to the over exploited hype monkey that is online piracy.

This is basically what the internet looks like, right?

The thing to note here is that when we're talking about second hand games we are talking exclusively about CONSOLE games. Because it's the consoles that have succeeded in the holy grail of the various media industries (at least to the largest extent possible): Locked down proprietary media that can only be accessed with the official locked down proprietary hardware. A music player that only played the approved music and that millions of people would actually buy is like a record labels wet dream. And you can tell through all the fumbling steps they take in failing to adapt to the digital era that this is basically what they want to be selling. Sadly for them (but literally no one else) that ship has long sailed. And if there's one thing the games industry is busy proving it's that things are seldom that straight forward.

The major reason people buy used games is so simple as to be barely worth repeating. They are a hell of a lot cheaper. Indeed, one of the reasons I bought an xbox was that I'd looked at the games available and seen there were quite a few that looked interesting that were under a tenner. And this is an interesting point, because the games industry basically has 2 price points. Second hand or fucking expensive. It's been noted elsewhere that maybe a little more variety here could help to fight the negative influence of used games. If new games were to come down in price over time, then they'd be able to compete better with the second hand ones, as the prices would be comparable. If a new game costs twice or three times as much as a second hand copy then there's no argument. If it costs only a few quid more then it might well be preferable.
Note that this is something you get with films and music all the time. A work comes out a higher price for those who want it right away, but then slowly comes down in price as the months go by.

However, this is all moot unless we address the issue of availability. See, one thing that I've never seen brought up in these arguments is the simple fact that there are a lot of games that you can ONLY get used. They simply don't make them any more. Indeed, there are several cases where it would actually be cheaper to buy it used. Of course there is the issue of exactly how much it's the availability of used games which is affecting the long term viability of new ones, so it's hardly cut and dried. But it's an interesting point to consider.

Some would consider the used games issue a significant driving force behind other aspects of the hobby as well. Notably the rise of over-hyped big budget sequels and DLC.

Now, DLC packs when done well are a great solution. If you like the game you can get more of it, and contribute some esteem in the shape of money to the developers. But when it's done badly then those who have actually taken the trouble to buy the game new feel cheated as they're being charged extra for parts of the game they've already paid for. You can avoid this by simply making sure the game that ships feels like a complete experience and maybe waiting long enough for someone to complete the game at least once before launching any add ons. Of course, making anything that feels like it's value for money in the swirling maelstrom of screaming entitlement that is gaming culture is tricky at best, but that's another issue.

Thing is, the developers are feeling backed into a corner where they can only turn a profit on the surest of sure things, and even then only in the first month or two. But I'm not sure this really helps the problem. See, it occurs to me that by relying on selling X million units in the first week all you're really doing is flooding the market with copies. And many people will quickly finish with the game and trade it in. Indeed, often it's in the players interest to do that as quickly as possible so they get the best price for it. And with all the hype you're probably going to be having at least some people caught up in it who aren't, once they actually get to sit down and play the damn thing, really all that into it. And it's here that we're getting to the uncomfortable question that pretty much every discussion of the subject implies but never addresses directly:

Is gaming an inherently disposable medium?

It's a metaphor.

Seriously. We need to be asking this question. Because if the issue of people trading in games is really that big of a thing then maybe we're going to be looking at an answer we don't like. And that's something we're going to need to address if we're ever going to solve any of these issues. If the experiences offered by games are not able to create any lasting value beyond that first play through then what can we do about it?

Now, this isn't to paint ALL games with the same brush. Just because we have a lot more Michael fucking Bay than <insert arty cult director of personal preference> doesn't mean everything has to be like that. But is it really? Or are we simply fooling ourselves otherwise.